Changes to Minuteman pact headed for town meetings

BOLTON — For the first time in four decades, significant changes to the Minuteman Regional Vocational School District agreement are in the works.

Voters in all 16 member towns — including Bolton and Lancaster — will get their say on the changes at town meetings.

"It's not considered a friendly agreement," Superintendent of Schools Ed Bouquillon told Bolton selectmen last week in describing the pact the towns have had since the school was created.

Town Administrator Don Lowe has been involved in the Minuteman changes, as well as planning for renovations at the school.

Lowe represents the smaller towns in the negotiations that crafted the final agreement.

"Everyone is equally dissatisfied for different reasons," Bouquillon said, indicating that was a sign the revisions were palatable enough to pass muster in the towns, which range from larger communities — such as Andover and Lexington— to small communities — such as Bolton and Dover.

Major changes include a weighted voting structure that gives larger communities more say, as well as making assessments of capital costs and annual operating costs based not on the most recent year enrollment, but on a four-year rolling average, similar to Nashoba Regional School District assessments.

Capital costs, a major sticking point, will be assessed under the new plan at 1 percent for each member, then 50 percent based on enrollment and the remainder based on Chapter 70 education aid and "ability to pay" formulas.

The new wording would also make it easier for members to leave or new members to join, with transitional "buy-in" if three-quarters of the existing members agree.

Withdrawal, which now requires all other members to agree, would occur unless a majority of other members disapproved the plan, with students still accepted on a tuition basis. With town meeting votes required within 60 days of the withdrawal approval, special town meetings would be needed in other towns and "silence infers approval," Bouquillon said, so any town objecting would have to vote against the withdrawal.

In a significant change, the plan would also allow capital costs to be assessed to tuition students; currently, when factoring in capital costs only assessed to member communities, tuition students effectively costing towns less than member students.

With about 40 percent of the student population being tuition students, the change would result in more shared capital costs. such as the planned major renovation.

Also, new debt currently can be blocked by a single community. Under the new plan, that is the first route, but the regional school committee could then seek a district-wide vote with the aggregate vote total determining debt approval.

Any changes would also require approval from the state commissioner of education. As Lowe noted, the commissioner would be likely to disapprove a larger member leaving, for instance, but not a small member with only a few students, because of the impact on the district.

"It looks good," Selectmen Chairman Stan Wysocki said of the changes.

All towns would have to approve the new agreement, Bouquillon said, but if passed it would go into effect July 1, so the impacts could be seen quickly, including in assessments.

Bouquillon noted there are some towns interested in leaving, but he stressed they first need to pass the new agreement. He also stressed that those towns should be up-front in meeting with the commissioner so they can get early feedback on his likely decision.

Any town leaving would then have to have a plan for where vocational students would go, potentially to another district or to Minuteman as tuition students.

Selectman Mark Sprague pointed out that, with the capital assessment changes, it would then be a similar cost, but without the vote.

A town leaving the district at this point would likely face "a wash," meaning the debt a town would owe would roughly match its portion of the district assets.

That would change as borrowing and renovations occur.

"It seems like a lot of thought was put into these amendments," Selectman Larry Delaney said.

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